Having finished with baseball’s worst record three straight years, the Astros have mastered the art of being bad. And it’s worked out for them; thanks to their early draft picks and some veteran-for-prospects trades, they now boast one of the game’s very best farm systems. That left the Astros with a decision to make entering…

The Yankees brought half a team to Houston, but that was enough to get a three-game sweep and conclude the Astros’ historic season with 15 straight losses. They’re the first team since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders to lose their final 15 games. The Astros ended up 51-111. They’re the 12th team since 1900 ever to…

The Indians entered tonight’s action with a half-game lead over the Rangers for the second Wild Card in the American League. The two teams have been trending in opposite directions, with the Rangers having lost nine of their last ten contests, while the Indians have won seven of their last nine. The Tribe sent lefty…

24-year-old rookie Brett Oberholtzer blanked the Mariners over nine innings this afternoon, becoming the first Astro to throw a complete game since Jordan Lyles on September 30 last year. Lyles was also the last to throw a shutout. Oberholtzer allowed just four hits and one walk while striking out five. Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma was…

It was just the way Ron Washington drew it up. Ian Kinsler, the Rangers’ No. 3 hitter, bunted two runners with none out in the bottom of the third with Texas up 2-1 on Houston tonight. An intentional walk to Adrian Beltre followed. Then came the 11 runs. 11! Here’s the whole gory inning: –…

Bud Norris, like Jake Peavy, has been scratched from tonight’s scheduled start, leading to speculation that the Astros are about to trade the right-hander. Lucas Harrell will start in his place against the Orioles, who’re one of the teams mentioned as a possible landing spot for Norris. Norris doesn’t have the same type of top-of-the-rotation…

23-year-old Astros pitching prospect Jarred Cosart made his Major League debut tonight against the Rays. He carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, losing it on a one-out single to right field by Ben Zobrist. He went eight-plus innings, shutting out the Rays and out-dueling reigning AL Cy Young award winner David Price. Throughout…

Cardinals 11, Reds 4: I’ll take “Improbable scores for an extra-inning game for $200, Alex.” It was already 7-4 in the top of the 10th when Matt Holliday came to the plate but he hit a grand slam off Curtis Partch to truly ice the game. J.J. Hoover was charged with six of the seven…

This is going to dent the ol’ run differential. The Astros entered the night having allowed 51 more runs than they have scored, among the worst in baseball along with the Blue Jays and Marlins. The Astros are comfortably in first place in that department after getting pummeled by the Detroit Tigers 17-2 tonight, bumping…

Forced to try something new with their starters putting way too much pressure on their bullpen, the Astros dropped Brad Peacock from the rotation on Monday. No replacement was immediately announced by the team, which lost four straight in Boston this weekend to drop to 7-18. Peacock, who was part of the Jed Lowrie-Chris Carter…

Between now and Opening Day, HardballTalk will take a look at each of baseball’s 30 teams, asking the key questions, the not-so-key questions, and generally breaking down their chances for the 2013 season. Up next: The Houston Astros. The Big Question: Will the Astros be historically bad? Maybe this isn’t the biggest question facing the…

Bud Norris will start on Opening Day for the Astros, who chose him over Lucas Harrell for the Game 1 assignment. Harrell was better last season, with a 3.76 ERA in 194 innings compared to a 4.65 ERA in 168 innings for Norris, but Norris has been with the Astros for four seasons and that…

Jordan Lyles threw a complete-game shutout against the Brewers in his final outing last season to finish 5-12 with a 5.09 ERA. Now, that doesn’t sound very impressive, but he was just 21 years old and that he was an Astro explains the win-loss record. He entered camp this year penciled in as Houston’s No.…

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports that the Astros have signed left-hander Erik Bedard to a minor league contract with a spring training invite. Bedard, who turns 34 in March, posted a 5.01 ERA and 118/56 K/BB ratio over 125 2/3 innings last season with the Pirates. He actually pitched pretty well early on, compiling a…

Update: And the Astros have already signed Humber to a one-year deal with a club option for 2014. No word on the terms yet, but a guarantee around $2 million seems likely. /// The White Sox were planning to non-tender Philip Humber before Friday’s deadline, but they went ahead and placed him on waivers beforehand,…

Following in the Marlins’ footsteps, the Astros have decided to go to a six-man rotation for the remainder of the season. Houston made the change in order to get rookie Dallas Keuchel regular starts down the stretch alongside Jordan Lyles, Fernando Abad, Lucas Harrell, Bud Norris, and Edgar Gonzalez. Interim manager Tony DeFrancesco told Zachary…

It was shutout Tuesday, apparently. Let’s tally the goose eggs: Yankees 3, Rangers 0: Hiroki Kuroda with the two-hit shutout. He was masterful, but man, there were a lot of ill-advised Texas swings in the parts of this one I watched. Either Kuroda had them more fooled than someone on the foolingest day of his life…

If the NL is going to narrow the talent gap with the AL in the coming years, it doesn’t really show up here. Sure, there’s a likely superstar playing well in Bryce Harper, but the AL can seemingly cancel him out with Mike Trout, who is playing a whole lot better. Beyond Harper, it’s a…

Giants 3, Dodgers 0: The season nadir for the Dodgers who got swept by their arch rivals in three straight shutouts and lost their lead in the division. And, to add insult to injury, Andre Ethier got hurt. Wait, that’s adding injury to insult I suppose. Ah, you know what I mean. Oh, and Timmay…

The 2012 Astros are pretty sure bets to lose 100 games, with the big question being whether they’ll top last year’s mark of 106 losses. That achievement will be tied to their ability to move the contracts of Wandy Rodriguez, Brett Myers and Carlos Lee. Ideally, they’d be able to sell off at least the…